D.E.E. & J-Y played 6 accoustic songs last night on VPRO Radio "Club Lek" Show.
1 - Black Bush ("a little out of tune but it's alright"; according to D.E.E.)
2 - 'Cept You
3 - Flowers In My Heart
4 - Wayfaring Stranger (mp3)
5 - Straw Foot
6 - Praying Arm Lane

It is difficult to compare this with the Crossing Border '99 show, because then I sat in the 2nd row and now I was at home listening to the radio, but still there was a distinctive difference. D.E.E. sounded very relaxed and well at ease. At Crossing Border on the other hand he was a tense bundle of nerves. Perhaps the whiskey (my assumption) made him relax. Both he and Tola were in fine spirits during the 7 minute interview.

Boots first asked whether they had left A&M or had been dropped. "Dropped" was the deadpan-response. Because you didn't sell enough records? A one-syllable affirmation followed. How did they feel after they had been dropped. "Good". But they added they didn't feel bad about what happened at A&M. It was good while it lasted. About the new label. Things are going great so far, but it is too soon to say how it is working out.

They produced Secret South themselves. They say they always wanted to do that but were to insecure in the beginning to do so, and the label wanted them to work with a producer. They didn't mind that. They liked working with people they admired. Now they had the chance to do it themselves and they took that chance. This way they came closer to realizing the sounds in their head because they weren't dependent on someone from outside the group, with his own vision.

When it came to the lyrics and the subjects of the songs D.E.E. flatly refused to say anything (which caused quite some laughter). A lot of the subjects are secret and I can sing about them the way I sing about them, but I'm not going to talk to you. What do you try to portray on this album? What are your themes, what do you think about when you write? I don't, I just do ;-) That ended that part of the interview. (asking Tola) Do you work together as a group? No, we don't. We just do. ;-) Tola explained that it isn't D.E.E. coming with an idea and the rest slavishly doing what he says. But that the songs evolve, and everyone can have some input.

About playing live (another cliché-question). It is their job, but it is very important to them. Because they don't get played on the radio and their videos aren't shown it is the only chance a lot of people have to hear them. That's why live shows are special. "Whether they're are playing to two people, or a lot more. Four."; D.E.E. deadpanned. ;-)

What songs are you going to play? "Just a couple of them". That turned out to be the six mentioned above. You can now hear one. Wayfaring Stranger.

Shift/click here to download an MP3 (3 min. 52 sec., 1.830KB, 64kbps).

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